


Christmas In The Sin-Bin!

by ReesieReads



Series: Duckcember 2020 [3]
Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxious Louie Duck, Background Launchpad McQuack, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Good Parent Drake Mallard, Gosalyn Mallard Needs a Hug, Hockey, Honorary Duck Family Member Webby Vanderquack, Hurt/Comfort, Louie Duck Needs a Hug, Misunderstandings, Older Sibling Huey Duck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:33:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27907510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReesieReads/pseuds/ReesieReads
Summary: While visiting the Mallard family, the Duck siblings visit an ice rink with Gosalyn, where she attempts to teach them about Hockey. Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worst when Louie can’t seem to take things seriously.
Relationships: Dewey Duck & Huey Duck & Louie Duck & Gosalyn Mallard & Webby Vanderquack, Drake Mallard & Gosalyn Mallard
Series: Duckcember 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2037025
Comments: 2
Kudos: 66





	Christmas In The Sin-Bin!

**Author's Note:**

> For those who don’t know, the ‘Sin-bin’ is a hockey term for the penalty box.
> 
> Also: I don’t know much about hockey or ice skating, so if there are any inaccuracies I’m really sorry!
> 
> Written for the Duckcember 2020 Challenge on Tumblr
> 
> Day Five: Winter Sports

“Why do I have to do this again?”

Dewey rolled his eyes, elbowing his younger brother in the rib,  _ “because,  _ me and Webby can’t learn how to play hockey unless we have more players!”

“Actually,” Huey cut in, pointing over to where Webby was attempting to skate around the ice rink, “I’m pretty sure Webby just wants to skate.”

Shushing his brother, Dewey finished tying his skates, struggling to his feet on the sharp blades. He could hear Huey and Louie snickering behind him, but easily ignored it in favor of grabbing his hockey stick (borrowed from Gosalyn) and spinning it.

“You do realize none of us know how to skate right?” Louie muttered, leaning back as Huey tied his skates (the youngest duckling had only agreed to wear them so long as he didn’t have to tie them, Dewey was pretty sure he just didn’t know how to), “this is going to be a  _ disaster.” _

“Aw, come on!” Dewey complained, ignoring the way his ankles wobbled beneath him as he turned to his brother, “we get to learn hockey! Aren’t you at least a  _ little  _ excited?”

“I’m only doing this for my winter sports badge,” Huey said, brushing off his winter jacket as he stood, “and you’re really the only one interested in sports, the rest of us only agreed for our own reasons.”

“Or because they were forced too,” Louie grumbled, looking affronted as he stood up on his skates.

“Would you  _ really  _ rather be doing nothing at home right now?”

_ “YES!” _

-

“Alright losers,” Gosalyn greeted as she smoothly glided over to the other four ducklings, “get in a line so I can see what we’re working with.”

Webby had the easiest time, already having practiced a bit while the boy’s argued. She still stumbled coming to a stop though, leaving skids in the ice behind her. Huey came up next to her, stopping well enough but his ankles shook as he moved. Louie didn’t even bother trying, grabbing onto the back of Huey’s shirt to guide himself over, before simply walking around the oldest triplet.

Dewey didn’t even make it to the line before falling.

The middle triplet quickly recovered, coming to stand next to Louie, but it didn’t stop Gosalyn from letting out a small sigh. How was she supposed to teach them hockey if they didn’t even know how to  _ skate? _

“Alright,” she said, skating over to stand in front of Webby, “your glide is good, but when you stop you're putting too much force on the front of the blades. You need to use the back to slow your momentum.”

“You need to straighten your stance,” Gosalyn said, coming to stand in front of Huey. Using the bottom of her hockey stick she gently (Drake had made her promise not to get anyone hurt) nudged his legs further apart, tapping at his feet until they became balanced on the blades. “If you don’t balance properly you're just  _ asking  _ for a sprained ankle.”

At first when she skated over to Louie she wanted to write him off as a lost cause. After all, it was pretty clear to her that he didn’t  _ really  _ want to be there, and they only needed four players to go over a basic game. But his form wasn’t even  _ bad,  _ and if he were to actually try Gosalyn was pretty sure he would at least be  _ decent. _

“It’s too bad you won’t try,” she said, forcing down a smirk as she continued,  _ “I’d bet my bottom dollar  _ you’d be pretty good if you just put a little effort in.”

The green triplet’s eyes glinted mischievously, a smirk coming across his beak, “is that so? How much do you want to bet?”

Dewey urgently shook his head, making a cut-throat motion in a poorly-hidden attempt to warn her. Gosalyn knew what she was getting herself into though, and really, she  _ wanted  _ to see the kid’s potential skills.

“How about this,” she said, acting as if she didn’t notice the sly look in the duckling’s eyes, “five dollars for every goal  _ you  _ make.”

_ “Deal.” _

Turning to Dewey (who was sporting a look that said  _ ‘are you stupid?’),  _ she rolled her eyes. As much as she  _ wanted  _ her friend to be good at hockey, he just  _ wasn’t.  _ Not only was his balance awful, but his glide was shaky. Gosalyn wouldn’t even be surprised if he happened to snap an ankle at some point.

Nevertheless, she knew it’d be cruel to just write him off, “open your stance and try to balance. Also, when you glide you need to bend your knees more, it’ll help the shakiness.”

Then, spinning her hockey stick before slamming it into the ice, she smiled cruelly at them, “now, who’s ready to  _ play?” _

-

Louie wasn’t usually one for sports, but he couldn’t say no to such a golden opportunity. He knew Gosalyn wouldn’t have offered the deal up if she thought he didn’t have  _ some  _ skill (she wasn’t nearly as stupid as most people probably wrote her off as).

And sure, he didn’t expect to make  _ hundreds  _ out of the whole thing. That was just an unrealistic expectation that was bound to set him up for  _ (yet another)  _ disappointment. But wanting to at least get ten seemed reasonable to him, once to prove he could do it, and then twice to prove the first one wasn’t a fluke.

It was going to be  _ perfect. _

But Louie hadn’t taken into account the idea of him going against  _ Gosalyn  _ as the goalie. He figured she would play referee, forcing them each to try as goalie while the rest worked on hitting the puck. The  _ plan  _ was to just wait for Dewey’s turn before making his goals, that way he could  _ ensure  _ at least five bucks (just in case Gosalyn was wrong about him being ‘good if he tried’).

That’s not how things went.

“This is a basic drill,” the red-head said from her stance in front of one of the goals at the end of the ice rink. Huey stood at the other, seeming unsure as he fiddled with his hockey stick. Dewey and Webby stood at Louie’s side in the middle, aggressive looks on their faces that only served to make him  _ more  _ nervous about his poor ankles. 

“You guys are going to fight over the puck, and try to get it into  _ either  _ goal. Remember you guys can only use your sticks to touch the puck, and  _ no  _ hitting each other-no not even on the ankles, I don’t need Drake mad at me. The goalies can use hands and feet as well, so watch out for that.”

Louie felt his head spinning with the information, trying to remember it all while also preparing himself for what could very well turn into a brawl. Dewey was  _ aggressive  _ when he was competing, and Webby tended to get a bit to…  _ passionate  _ about these kinds of things. It wasn’t like Gosalyn could prevent someone from getting hurt, and with his track record Louie was pretty sure  _ he  _ was the one who would be getting a face full of hockey stick.

“Ready?” Gosalyn called, puck in hand and a wicked smirk on her face.

Dewey and Webby nodded enthusiastically, and Louie tensed as the puck flew into the air. Keeping his stick low to the ground he slowly followed after an enthusiastic Webby and Dewey. The ladder stumbling most of the way, and the former gliding smoothly but having trouble turning in the direction of the puck, which had landed a little ways away from Huey’s goal.

Not putting much force into his glide allowed Louie to gain a faster momentum then the other two, and he found himself quickly approaching the black puck. Part of him said to do the obvious and start turning, grabbing the puck as he went. The other part of him screamed that he’d gained too much speed, that if he didn’t slow down he was going to get  _ hurt. _

He stopped so fast he fell forwards, luckily using his arms as a break for his fall rather than his face.

Webby, finally figuring out how to turn, quickly stole the puck. Dewey attempted to catch up to her, but the way he was going was so slow that he’d never catch up. Louie waited for Huey to block the puck, Webby’s shot weak thanks to one of her feet slipping forward as she raised her stick. The oldest triplet didn’t even  _ make  _ a move to block it though, Webby letting out a loud cheer as the piece of plastic hit the net. But Louie didn’t feel any kind of joy at the accomplishment.

Huey hadn’t moved because he was looking straight at  _ him. _

-

The next few games didn’t go much better.

Every time Louie got close to grabbing the puck or scoring something stopped him. Either he’d freeze up from nerves, or see one of the others out of the corner of his eyes and flinch, sending him tumbling to the ice below. It had gotten to the point where Webby and Dewey just ignored him, waiting for him to mess up before going against each other.

Huey, meanwhile, had anxiously watched his younger brother from the goal. Originally he was just confused about the behavior, unsure as to why Louie would mess up the  _ perfect  _ chance to gain money.  _ Then  _ he had assumed it was some sort of scheme to make Webby and Dewey underestimate him, that soon he’d turn things around and start  _ really  _ trying.

But game after game and nothing had changed.

It was when Louie had flinched at a flying puck (courtesy of Dewey) that wasn’t even  _ near  _ him that Huey started to get the picture. Out of the kids Louie was  _ easily  _ the one who got the most hurt or just suffered from the most misfortune. He had been  _ covered  _ in spiders in the Armory of Cornelius Coot  _ (after  _ getting hit in the stomach by the sharp-end of a shovel), almost  _ murdered  _ in the tomb of Toth-Ra, even Lena had almost ripped the youngest triplet’s hair out when she had first met him. Of  _ course  _ Louie had started worrying about getting hurt, it only made sense.

Once Huey knew the problem, he was extremely tempted to just call off the game with some kind of excuse. He didn’t want his brother to keep facing humiliation after humiliation because he was  _ scared,  _ that wasn’t fair, and he  _ definitely  _ didn’t want Gosalyn to blow her top (which she looked  _ very  _ close to doing) for something that really  _ wasn’t  _ Louie’s fault.

But Louie wouldn’t  _ want  _ him to say anything, so he didn’t.

-

“Okay, I’m  _ done!” _

Gosalyn was  _ fuming,  _ her face red with anger. She hadn’t cared if Louie had  _ actually  _ scored, that wasn’t the reason she had set the bet, but this was just  _ ridiculous.  _ Skating over to the duckling, who was still sitting on the ground from his latest ‘fall’ she loomed over him.

“If you didn’t want to play you could have just  _ said  _ so,” she hissed, continuing before he could respond, “I set the bet because I wanted to see you  _ try,  _ and game after game all you’ve done is make a fool of yourself! Do you think it’s  _ funny?” _

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Huey signal Webby to go get Drake and Launchpad, but she was too angry to care. She thought she had  _ finally  _ found a friend who she could play with, she thought that if he saw how good he truly was then maybe he would like it too, that maybe Gosalyn would finally have someone who was interested in what she was interested in. And yeah, maybe her expectations were too high, but for him to sit here and  _ mock  _ her?

Gosalyn couldn’t take it.

Huey had managed to skate his way over to them, eyes pooling with concern not for her but for his  _ brother.  _ The oldest triplet came to stand between them, gaze turning hard as he faced her, “that’s  _ enough,  _ you're accusing him of baseless accusations!”

“Move out of the way,” she snarled, “this isn’t about you.”

“It is when you're literally screaming at  _ my  _ brother for  _ no reason!”  _

“What’s going on here?”

The adults had arrived.

-

“You want to explain what all  _ that  _ was about?”

Drake, unsure of how to handle the situation, had decided to separate the kids for the moment. He had sent Launchpad with the Duck siblings, while he handled Gosalyn.

He still could hardly believe what had happened. 

When Webby had come running into the lounge, looking panicked as she fought for breath, he had feared the worst. He had imagined Gosalyn, bloodied and battered on the ice. And though he knew it was unrealistic, he still rushed to the rink alongside Launchpad and Webby.

What he had happened upon instead was Gosalyn glaring daggers at Huey, who was standing over Louie with his arms out as if to  _ protect  _ him. Dewey stood off to the side, eyes wide as he watched the confrontation.

Drake had  _ never  _ seen his daughter so angry, and he couldn’t even begin to understand what had set her off.

Even now, the red-head simply turned away from him rather than answering his question. Her arms were crossed, and she sat on the rink bench with her knees hugged to her chest. It reminded him painfully of the first week he had known her, too exhausted from his search to properly comfort the grieving duckling. Thank goodness Launchpad had been there, because otherwise Drake wouldn’t have known what to do.

Sitting down on the bench beside her, Drake sighed, “you know I’m not angry right? I just want to know what happened so I can help.”

“It’s  _ his  _ fault,” she snipped, and to Drake’s horror her eyes started to become glassy, “we made a bet over hockey, because I knew he wouldn’t play otherwise. I could tell he was really good, and I wanted to see what he could do! But the entire time he just kept  _ sabotaging  _ himself. Like suddenly slowing down, or backing off as soon as one of the others got close, or-or just  _ falling!  _ For no reason! I-I know he was mocking me! There’s no other explanation.”

Drake resisted the urge to rub his temples, just to try and alleviate the headache that had slowly formed the longer he was a father. Instead he pulled the duckling into a side-hug, using his free hand to wipe away the hot tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Did you  _ ask  _ him what was going on?” He asked softly, though he had a feeling he knew the answer.

“No,” Gosalyn admitted, sounding guilty, “I just kind of… assumed he was messing with me.”

Drake couldn’t blame her for the action, even if he was probably supposed to say something about it as the parent. Gosalyn had admitted that the kids at school teased her a lot, for all kinds of things really, from her interests to the fact that she was adopted. And while Drake  _ desperately  _ wanted to just walk in and punch every single one of them in the face, he knew he couldn’t.

That didn’t mean he had to like how it affected his daughter though.

“Gos,” he said, voice soft as he squeezed her arm in what he hoped was a comforting gesture, “all of them, Webby, Dewey, Huey,  _ Louie,  _ they’re your  _ friends.  _ They wouldn’t make fun of you for liking something.”

“I know,” she muttered, deflating in his hold, “but now Huey  _ hates  _ me, and I’m pretty sure I scared the crap out of Louie. How am I supposed to make this up to them?”

“I’ll help you,” Drake insisted, “that’s what parents are for right?”

“Right.”

-

“You okay?”

Louie nodded, numbly watching as Huey untied his skates and set them to the side. He was still shaken by Gosalyn’s outburst, his hands trembling inside his hoodie pocket. The whole situation reminded him too much of when Della had grounded him, looming over him as she yelled (no, not yelled,  _ talked harshly)  _ at him.

He was grateful that Huey came to his defense though, something that  _ hadn’t  _ happened with Della (admittedly, the harshness had been  _ well  _ deserved then). After Drake had asked everyone to separate, Huey had guided him to the lounge, everyone slowly following behind. 

“I’m sorry,” he murmured from his spot on the couch, too drained to muster anything louder.

“This isn’t your fault,” Huey said simply, meeting his eyes, “Gosalyn had no right to yell at you like that.”

Dewey nodded, sitting down next to Louie and resting his head on the youngest triplet’s shoulder. Webby did the same on the other side, even going so far as to grab his hand and squeeze. 

“I should have said something though,” he insisted, “how was Gosalyn supposed to know I was freaked out?”

“You were freaked out?” Dewey asked, turning his head slightly to meet Louie’s eyes, “about what?”

He shrugged, “getting hurt I guess? It happens a lot, and I don’t know, I guess I kind of got nervous about it?”

“I should have said something,” Huey muttered darkly, “I  _ knew  _ what was wrong, I just didn’t think you’d appreciate me telling everyone.”

“I  _ wouldn’t  _ have,” Louie agreed, “and if I’m not allowed to blame myself, then you can’t blame yourself either. Deal?”

Rolling his eyes, Huey nodded, “deal.”

-

“Hey.”

...

“Hey.”

Everyone had finally met back up at the rink, both sides deciding they were finally ready to talk. Gosalyn stood next to Drake, her face riddled with guilt. Parallel to her were the Duck siblings, Dewey using Louie’s shoulder as an armrest, while Webby and Huey stood next to Launchpad with unreadable expressions.

Gosalyn sighed, deciding to just rip off the band aid and get it all over with, “look, I’m  _ really  _ sorry for yelling at you guys. Neither of you deserved that, and I was just taking my problems out on you. I-um-I shouldn’t have assumed I knew what you were doing or thinking, or accused you of anything. And don’t have to forgive me, but, I just needed to say I’m sorry.”

Louie just rolled his eyes, laughing lightly, “it’s cool, I’m sorry for not explaining myself better.”

“It’s alright Gos,” Huey said, “as long as it doesn’t  _ ever  _ happen again we should be okay.”

The red-head laughed, filled with relief, “I promise it won’t.”

“So…” Dewey cut in, “is this the part where we go get ice cream or?”

Everyone burst out laughing, and Dewey smiled smugly, proud of himself for cutting through the tension.

“Yeah okay,” Drake gave in, laughing again as a chorus of cheers sounded around him, “but  _ don’t  _ tell your Uncle.”


End file.
